Working with teleconverters

One of the problems with these really long lenses is they make you greedy.…You zoom in a certain amount and you just want to go farther.…And I've got an 800-millimeter lens and I still want to get closer, but to do that would…be to go to a bigger lens, which is going to be even heavier and more unwieldy, and it's…going to cost even more money.…There is another option and that is to use a teleconverter.…This is a small piece of hardware that's going to go between the lens and the camera.…It's actually got some optics in it.…It's going to add another optical element to my lens that's going to magnify it, in…this case by 1.4. So that's going to get me from 800 to 1,120.…

Now, there are other size tele-extenders.…You can get a 2x extender, which would get me from 800 to 1600.…So you might think, well, why don't you just leave that on all the time?…There is a price to pay, as we'll see.…First, let's put this on.…Taking the caps off, it's just like any lens.…Notice that I've sandwiched these together so that when they go in my pocket, they don't get full of dust.…

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Released

12/17/2012

Join photographer, author, and teacher Ben Long on location in San Francisco as he explores the creative options provided by the kinds of lenses and lens accessories that don't always make it into most camera bags.

The course begins with a look at several common and inexpensive lens attachments, from polarizers to neutral density filters. The course then explores ultra-wide angle and fisheye lenses as well as ultra-long telephoto and macro lenses. The course concludes with a look at tilt-shift lenses, which are useful for architectural photography and special effects, and at offbeat lenses, such as Lensbaby and Holga attachments.

The course also contains Photoshop postproduction advice and examples that illustrate the creative possibilities that an expanded lens collection provides. And because some specialty lenses are extremely expensive, the course also contains advice on renting gear.